Cryogenic liquefaction of normally gaseous materials is utilized for the purposes of component separation, purification, storage and for the transportation of said components in a more economic and convenient form. Most such liquefaction systems have many operations in common, regardless of the gases involved, and consequently, have many of the same problems. One problem commonly encountered in liquefaction processes, particularly when aromatics are present, is the precipitation and subsequent solidification of these species in the process equipment thereby resulting in reduced process efficiency and reliability. Another common problem is the removal of small quantities of the higher valued, higher molecular weight chemical species from the gas stream immediately prior to liquefaction of the gas stream in a major portion. Accordingly, the present invention will be described with specific reference to the processing of natural gas but is applicable to the processing of gas in other systems wherein similar problems are encountered.
It is common practice in the art of processing natural gas to subject the gas to cryogenic treatment to separate hydrocarbons having a molecular weight higher than methane (C.sub.2 +) from the natural gas thereby producing a pipeline gas predominating in methane and a C.sub.2 + stream useful for other purposes. Frequently, the C.sub.2 + stream will be separated into individual component streams, for example, C.sub.2, C.sub.3, C.sub.4 and C.sub.5 +.
It is also common practice to cryogenically treat natural gas to liquefy the same for transport and storage. The primary reason for the liquefaction of natural gas is that liquefaction results in a volume reduction of about 1/600, thereby making it possible to store and transport the liquefied gas in containers of more economical and practical design. For example, when gas is transported by pipeline from the source of supply to a distant market, it is desirable to operate the pipeline under a substantially constant and high load factor. Often the deliverability or capacity of the pipeline will exceed demand while at other times the demand may exceed the deliverability of the pipeline. In order to shave off the peaks where demand exceeds supply, it is desirable to store the excess gas in such a manner that it can be delivered when the supply exceeds demand, thereby enabling future peaks in demand to be met with material from storage. One practical means for doing this is to convert the gas to a liquefied state for storage and to then vaporize the liquid as demand requires.
Liquefaction of natural gas is of even greater importance in making possible the transport of gas from a supply source to market when the source and market are separated by great distances and a pipeline is not available or is not practical. This is particularly true where transport must be made by ocean-going vessels. Ship transportation in the gaseous state is generally not practical because appreciable pressurization is required to significantly reduce the specific volume of the gas which in turn requires the use of more expensive storage containers.
In order to store and transport natural gas in the liquid state, the natural gas is preferably cooled to -240.degree. F. to -260.degree. F. where it possesses a near-atmospheric vapor pressure. Numerous systems exist in the prior art for the liquefaction of natural gas or the like in which the gas is liquefied by sequentially passing the gas at an elevated pressure through a plurality of cooling stages whereupon the gas is cooled to successively lower temperatures until the liquefaction temperature is reached. Cooling is generally accomplished by heat exchange with one or more refrigerants such as propane, propylene, ethane, ethylene, and methane or a combination of one or more of the preceding. In the art, the refrigerants are frequently arranged in a cascaded manner and each refrigerant is employed in a closed refrigeration cycle. Further cooling of the liquid is possible by expanding the liquefied natural gas to atmospheric pressure in one or more expansion stages. In each stage, the liquefied gas is flashed to a lower pressure thereby producing a two-phase gas-liquid mixture at a significantly lower temperature. The liquid is recovered and may again be flashed. In this manner, the liquefied gas is further cooled to a storage or transport temperature suitable for liquefied gas storage at near-atmospheric pressure. In this expansion to near-atmospheric pressure, some additional volumes of liquefied gas are flashed. The flashed vapors from the expansion stages are generally collected and recycled for liquefaction or utilized as fuel gas for power generation.
As previously noted, a major operational problem in the liquefaction of natural gas is the removal of residual amounts of benzene and other aromatic compounds from the natural gas stream immediately prior to the liquefaction of a major portion of said stream and the tendency of such components to precipitate and solidify thereby causing the fouling and potential plugging of pipes and key process equipment. As an example, such fouling can significantly reduce the heat transfer efficiency and throughput of heat exchangers, particularly plate-fin heat exchangers.
A second problem in the processing of methane-rich gas streams is the lack of a cost-effective means for recovering the higher molecular weight hydrocarbons from the gas stream prior to liquefaction of the stream in major portion or returning the remaining stream to a pipeline or other processing step. The recovered higher molecular weight hydrocarbons generally possess a greater value on a per unit mass basis than the remaining components in the gas stream.